J.Fraser - Fine Artist

"Of all the arts, abstract painting is the most difficult. It demands that you know how to draw well, that you have a heightened sensitivity for composition and for colors, and that you be a true poet. This last is essential." -- Wassily Kandinsky.

In its purest form, abstract art is without a recognizable subject. It doesn't relate to anything external or try to look like anything in particular. Instead, the color, the form, and the materials become the subject of the abstract painting. Abstract art can be completely non-objective and non-representational. The paintings showcased in this gallery fall into the above abstract classifications.

Gallery Exhibition - "Sanguine Women: The Temperament Of Blood"

Theme of exhibition:

Hippocrates theorized that all people fall into one of four basic "temperaments" or personality types: Melancholic, Sanguine, Choleric, and Phlegmatic. He assumed that each personality type was the result of an overabundance of a certain bodily fluid (black bile, blood, bile, and phlegm respectively), hence their designations. A Melancholic personality is characterized by creativity and sensitivity, though prone to depression. A Sanguine person is light hearted, spontaneous, and confident --though sometimes also day-dreamy and overindulgent. Cholerics are ambitions and charismatic, but often impulsive and easily angered. The Phlegmatic temperament is characterized by self-assured calm, though they can be unemotional and inhibit the enthusiasm of others. While the notion that one's personality is shaped by an overabundance of phlegm or blood is now regarded as ridiculous, the 4 personality types Hippocrates identified have stayed with us. Though the types have changed and been refined, they are still part of the basis of modern personality modeling. As products of the human mind, artworks often also can be attributed "personality" traits. An energetically painted landscape rendered in saturated color can be described as sanguine; a delicately lit black and white photograph of a contemplative figure can be said to be melancholy. An artwork's temperament does not necessarily reflect the temperament of the artist that produced it. The artwork in this gallery possesses or infers the characteristics associated with the Sanguine temperament.

Gallery Exhibition - "Figurative Abstractions"

Theme of exhibition:

Figurative art refers to art which represents the human or animal figure, and in terms of abstract art, can be used to refer to any form of modern art that retains strong references to the real world. Although paradoxical, generally classified with abstract art are expressionistic and figurative abstractions and paintings which represent things that aren't visual, such an emotion, sound, or spiritual experience. These are abstractions or simplifications of reality, where detail is eliminated from recognizable objects leaving only the essence or some degree of recognizable form. The paintings in this gallery display figurative abstraction as well as formal figurative elements.